Aim. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of music therapy on ventilation criteria in mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit.

Background. Complications made by mechanical ventilation are so much and considerable. Improvement of ventilation criteria is one of the factors that facilitatesweaning from mechanical ventilation.

Method. This randomized controlled trial was conducted in intensive care units of a teaching hospital affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Seventy patients were recruited based on inclusion criteria and randomly allocated to experimental (n=35) and control (n=35) groups. For experimental group, relaxing music therapy was played with headphone for 30 minutes, once in the morning and once in the afternoon for one day. For control group, headphone was used without music for 30 minutes, once in the morning and once in the afternoon for one day. In both groups, ventilation criteria of respiratory rate, peak airway pressure and arterial saturation of oxygen (SaO2) were recorded in four intervals. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 18 using statistical test.

Findings. Comparing of trends of ventilation criteria in experimental group showed that music therapy significantly reduced the mean respiratory rate (p= 0.0001), while in the control group, the mean respiratory rate slightly increased with time. In experimental group, the mean airway pressure reduced significantly within 30 minutes (17.30±3.65) compared with the time zero (19.68±3.64) (p=0.001). In the control group, the mean airway pressure increased slightly. The amount of spo2 did not differ significantly between experimental and control group (P=0.051).

Conclusion. Implementing music therapy in mechanically ventilated patients admitted to intensive care unit can reduce respiratory rate and maximum airway pressure. These could reduce the work of breathing and facilitate weaning the patient from ventilators.